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[The following report of the secretary of state to the president, accompanied the message of the president of the United States to congress on the subject of the Panama mission.]

The secretary of state, to whom the president has referred that part of the resolution of the house of representatives, of the 3d instant, which requests that he would cause to be laid before that house 66 SO much of the correspondence between the government of the United States, and the new states of America, or their ministers, respecting the proposed congress, or meeting of diplomatic agents at Panama, and of such information respecting the general character of that expected congress, as may be in his possession," has the honor now to report :

That, during the last spring, he held, at the department of state, separate conferences, on the same day, with the respective ministers of Colombia and Mexico, in the course of which, each of them verbally 'stated, that his government was desirous that the United States should be represented at the proposed congress, and that he was instructed to communicate an invitation to their government to send representatives to it; but that, as his government did not know whether it would be agreeable or not to the United States to receive such an invitation, and, as it was not wished to occasion any embarassment to them, he was charged informally to inquire, previous to the delivery of the invitation, whether it would be accepted, if given by both of the republics of Mexico and Colombia. It was also stated, by each of those ministers, that his government did

not expect that the United States would change their present neutral policy, nor was it desired that they should take part in such of the deliberations of the proposed congress as might relate to the prosecution of the existing war with Spain.

Having laid before the president what transpired at these conferences, his direction was received about a week after they had been held, to inform the ministers of Mexico and Colombia, and they were accordingly informed, that their communication was received with due sensibility to the friendly consideration of the United States by which it had been dictated: that, of course, they could not make themselves a party to the war between the new states and Spain, nor to councils for deliberating on the means of its further prosecution; that the president believed that such a congress, as was contemplated, might be highly useful in settling several important disputed questions of public law, in arranging other matters of deep interest to the American continent, and in strengthening the friendship and amicable intercourse between the American powers: that, before such a congress, however assembled, it appeared to the president to be expedient to adjust, between the different powers to be represented, several preliminary points, such as the subjects to which the attention of the congress was to be directed, the nature and the form of the powers to be given to the diplomatic agents who were to compose it, and the mode of its organization and its action. these preliminary points could be arranged in a manner satisfactory to the United States, the ministers

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from Colombia and Mexico were informed that the president thought that the United States ought to be represented at Panama. Each of those ministers undertook to transmit to his government the answer which was thus given to both.

In this posture the overture remained until the letters were received, which accompany this report, from the ministers of the republics of Mexico and Colombia, under date of the 2d and 3d November, 1825.

The first and only communication from the minister of the republic of Central America to this department, in regard to the congress at Panama, is contained in his official note.

The secretary of state has also the honor to report to the president, extracts from the instructions which were given by the department of state to Mr. Anderson, on the twenty-seventh day of May, 1823, and copies of certain parts of the correspondence which, since the las session of congress, has taken place between the executive of the United States, and the governments of Russia, France, Spain, and Mexico, of which a descriptive list accompanies this report. In respect to the negotiation which Mr. Middleton was authorised by the despatch of the 10th of May last, (one of the papers now reported,) to institute at St. Petersburgh, considering the lapse of time, and the great and lamented event which has lately occurred in Europe, perhaps there is no adequate reason for refraining from a communication of it to the house, which is recommended by its intimate connection with the interests of the new republics. About the same period with the date of that

despatch, instructions were given to Mr. Everett, to inculcate on Spain the necessity of peace, and to our ministers in France and England, to invite the cabinets of Paris and London to co-operate in the same work. The hope, not yet abandoned, was indulged, that, by an united exertion of all the great powers, and especially of Russia, Spain might be brought to see her true interests in terminating the existing war. Other negotiations growing out of, and subordinate to, that which was authorised in the before-mentioned despatch of the 10th of May, to Mr. Middleton, have been more recently commenced. They have for their object the prevention of disorder in the Spanish islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, and also to guard the United States against the danger of bad examples and excesses, of which, in the course of events, those islands might become the theatre, as well as the conservation of our commercial and navigating interests.

All of which is respectfully submitted. H. CLAY. Department of state, 14th March, 1826.

Extract of a LETTER from MR.

ADAMS, Secretary of State, to MR. ANDERSON, Minister Plenipotentiary to Colombia, dated 27th May, 1823.

"The revolution which has severed the colonies of Spanish America from European thraldom, and left them to form self-dependent governments as members of the society of civilized nations, is among the most important events in modern history. As a general movement in human affairs, it is perhaps no more than a developement of principles first brought

into action by the separation of these states from Great Britain, and by the practical illustration given in the formation and establishment of our union, to the doctrine that voluntary agreement is the only legitimate source of authority among men; and that all just government is a compact, It was impossible that such a system as Spain had established over her colonies, should stand before the progressive improvements of the understanding in this age, or that the light shed upon the whole earth by the results of our revolution should leave in utter darkness the regions immediately adjoining upon ourselves. The independence of the Spanish colonies, however, has proceeded from other causes, and has been achieved upon principles in many respects different from ours. In our revolution the principle of the social compact was from the beginning, in immediate issue. It originated in a question of right, between the government in Europe, and the subject in America. Our independence was declared in defence of our liberties, and the attempt to make the yoke, a yoke of oppression, was the cause and the justification for casting it off.

The revolution of the Spanish colonies was not caused by the oppression under which they had been held, however great it had been. Their independence was first forced upon them by the temporary subjugation of Spain herself to a foreign power. They were, by that event, cast upon themselves, and compelled to establish governments of their own. Spain, through all the vicissitudes of her own revolutions, has clung to the desperate hope, of retaining,

or of reclaiming them to her own control; and has waged, to the extent of her power, a disastrous war to that intent.

In the mind of every rational man, it has been for years apparent that Spain can never succeed to recover her dominion where it has been abjured, nor is it probable that she can long retain the small remnant of her authority yet acknowledged in some spots of the South American continent.

The political course of the United States, from the first dawning of South American independence, has been such as was prescribed by their relative duties to all the parties. Being on terms of peace and amity with Spain, through all the changes of her own government, they have considered the struggles of the colonies for independence as a case of civil war, to which their national obligations prescribed to them to remain neutral. Their policy, their interest, and their feelings, all concurred to fayor the cause of the colonies; and the principles upon which the right of independence has been maintained by the South American patriots, have been approved, not only as identical with those upon which our own independence was asserted and achieved, but as involving the whole theory of government on the emphatically American foundation of the sovereignty of the people, and the unalienable rights of man. To a cause reposing upon this basis, the people of this country never could be indifferent, and their sympathies have accordingly been, with great unanimity and constancy, enlisted in its favor. The sentiments of the government of the United States, have been in perfect harmony with those of their

people, and while forbearing, as their duties of neutrality prescribed, from every measure which could justly be construed as hostile to Spain, they have exercised all the moral influence which they possessed to countenance and promote the cause of independence. So long as a contest of arms, with a rational or even remote prospect of eventual success was maintained by Spain, the United States could not recognize the independence of the colonies, as existing de facto, without trespassing on their duties to Spain, by assuming as decided that which was precisely the question of the war. In the history of South American independence, there are two periods clearly distinguishable from each other. The first, that of its origin, when it was rather a war of independence against France than against Spain, and the second, from the restoration of Ferdinand the seventh, in 1814. Since that period, the territories, now constituting the republic of Colombia, have been the only theatre upon which Spain has been able to maintain the conflict offensively, with even a probable color of ultimate success. But when, in 1815, she made her greatest effort in the expedition from Cadiz, commanded by Morillo, Mexico, Peru and Chili, were yet under her authority, and had she succeeded in reducing the coast of Terra Firma and New Grenada, the provinces of La Plata, divided among themselves, and weakened by the Portuguese occupation of Monte Video, would probably not have held out against her long. This at least was the calculation of her policy, and from the geographical position of these countries, which may be termed the heart of

South America, the conclusion might well be drawn, that if the power of Spain could not be firmly reseated there, it must be on her part a fruitless struggle to maintain her supremacy in any part of the American continent. The expedition of Morillo, on its first arrival, was attended with signal success-Carthagena was taken. The whole coast of Terra Firma was occupied, and New Grenada was entirely subdued. A remnant of patriots in Venezuela, with their leader Bolivar, returning from expulsion, revived the cause of independence, and after the campaign of 1819, in which they reconquered the whole of New Grenada, the demonstration became complete, that every effort of Spain to recover the South America continent must thenceforward be a desperate waste of her own resources, and that the truest friendship of other nations to her, would consist in making her sensible that her own interest would be best consulted, by the acknowledgment of that independence which she could no longer effectually dispute.

To this conclusion the government of the United States had, at an earlier period, arrived. But, from that emergency, the president has considered the question of recognition, both in a moral and political view, as merely a question of the proper time. While Spain could entertain a reasonable hope of maintaining the war, and of recovering her authority, the acknowledgment of the colonies, as independent states, would have been a wrong to her; but she had no right, upon the strength of this principle, to maintain the pretension, after she was manifestly disabled from maintaining the contest, and by

unreasonably withholding her acknowledgment, to deprive the independents of their right to demand the acknowledgment of others. To fix upon the precise time, when the duty to respect the prior sovereign right of Spain should cease, and that of yielding to the claim of acknowledgment would commence, was a subject of great delicacy, and, to the president, of constant and anxious solicitude. It naturally became, in the first instance, a proper subject of consultation with other powers, having relations of interests to themselves, with the newly opened countries, as well as influence in the general affairs of Europe. In August, 1818, a formal proposal was made to the British government for a concerted and cotemporary recognition of the independence of Buenos Ayres, then the only one of the South American states, which, having declared independence, had no Spanish force contending against it within its borders, and where it, therefore, most unequivocally existed in fact. The British government declined accepting the proposal themselves, without, however, expressing any disapprobation of it; without discussing it as a question of principle, and without assigning any reason for the refusal, other than that it did not then suit with their policy. It became a subject of consideration at the deliberations of the congress of Aix La Chapelle, in October, 1818. There is reason to believe, that it disconcerted projects, which were there entertained, of engaging the European alliance, in actual operation against the South Americans, as it is well known that a plan for their joint mediation, between Spain and her colonies, for restoring them

to her authority, was actually matured and finally failed at that place, only by the refusal of Great Britain to accede to the condition of employing force eventually against the South Americans for its accomplishment. Some dissatisfaction was manifested by several members of the congress at Aix La Chapelle, at this avowal, on the part of the United States, of their readiness to recognize the independence of Buenos Ayres.

The reconquest in the campaign of 1819, of New Grenada to the patriot cause, was immediately followed by the formation of the republic of Colombia, consisting of three great divisions of the preceding Spanish government, Venezuela, Cundinamarca and Quito. It was soon succeeded by the dissolution of the Spanish authority in Mexico; by the revolution in Spain itself; and by the military operations which resulted in the declaration of independence in Peru. In November, 1820, was concluded the armistice between the generals Morillo and Bolivar, together with a subsequent treaty, stipulating that in case of the renewal of the war, the parties would abstain from all hostilities and practices not consistent with the modern law of nations, and the humane maxims of civilization. February, 1821, the partial independence of Mexico was proclaimed at Yguala; and in August of the same year was recognized by the Spanish vice-roy and captain. general O'Donoju at Cordova.

In

The formation of the republic of Colombia, by the fundamental law of 17th December, 1819, was notified to this government, by its agent, the late Don Manuel Torres, on the 20th of February, 1821,

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